Short-term visa C for Serbia is the permit for a visit of up to 90 days inside any 180 day period, counted from the day you first arrive. It is granted on one stated purpose, business, tourism, a private visit, an event or treatment, and it is issued for a single entry, for two, or for many.
A great many people who look this up need no visa at all. Serbia admits most Western nationals on the passport alone, and it admits holders of a valid Schengen, UK, US or Irish visa on the same terms. Settle that question before you prepare anything.
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Three groups, and only the third one applies for anything. Which group you are in turns on the passport you hold, and then on whether you already carry a visa or a residence permit from somewhere else. It is worth settling before you book.
Nationals of the EU, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and a long list of others are admitted on the passport alone for up to 90 days in any 180. No application, no fee, no appointment.
Nationals of many visa-required countries may enter Serbia without a Serbian visa if they hold a valid Schengen, United Kingdom, United States, Irish or Cypriot visa or residence permit. The stay allowed is the same.
Everyone the first two do not reach. The visa is obtained before you travel, on one stated purpose, with the invitation or the booking that proves it, and it has to be in the passport before you board.
The visa is granted for one purpose, named in the application and proved by the documents behind it. The purpose you choose decides the evidence, and the wrong pairing is the most common reason a straightforward case comes back with questions.
Meetings, negotiating and signing a contract, a trade fair, an audit, installing or servicing equipment. The invitation comes from the company you are coming to see, and it carries most of the file.
A holiday, or a stay with family or friends. A tourist file rests on the booking and the itinerary. A private one rests on an invitation certified by a notary here in Serbia.
International political, scientific, cultural, sporting and religious events. The organiser confirming your participation in writing is what the application turns on, so ask for it the moment you are accepted.
A short course, language study, or a training programme that finishes inside the 90 days. Anything longer belongs on a long stay visa instead, and the two are not interchangeable.
Treatment at a clinic or hospital here, evidenced by the institution admitting you and by how the treatment is being paid for. Accompanying family members are handled in the same file.
Serbia has no transit visa of its own any more, so a drive through, a train through, or a layover that takes you out of the airport is a visa C like any other. Stay inside the international transit area and you need nothing at all.
You are told at the outset what each stage requires from you and what we do without you. Nothing is filed before you have seen it.
Start the processWe check your nationality against the current requirement, then check whether a visa or residence permit you already hold removes it. A good share of enquiries end here, with a written answer that no application is needed and no fee is due.
The visa is granted on one stated purpose and the whole file is built around it. Business, tourism, a private visit, an event and treatment each call for different proof, and choosing the purpose deliberately is what keeps the application straightforward.
A private visit rests on an invitation certified by a notary in Serbia. A business visit rests on one from the company you are coming to see. We draft both, arrange the certification here, and hand you a document that will not be queried.
Passport, photograph, travel medical insurance, funds, accommodation and the purpose evidence, assembled as one file and lodged for you. We follow it to the decision and tell you what is outstanding rather than leaving you to guess at it.
Before you book, we count your previous stays against the 90 day allowance. That count is what decides your entry, and a visa in the passport does nothing for a traveller who has already used the days.
Almost everything that goes wrong with this visa comes from expecting it to do something it was never built for. Three limits account for nearly all of it, and all three are far cheaper to learn about now than at a border.
The allowance runs inside a 180 day period that starts the day you first enter. Arrival and departure days both count, short business trips count, and stepping out of the country for a weekend does not reset anything. The sum is done at the border.
Business travel is permitted: meetings, negotiating and signing, a fair, an audit, an installation. Taking up employment here, or working through a Serbian company of your own, is not. That needs its own permission and a different application.
A short-term visa is not a basis for a temporary residence permit. If you need a visa to enter Serbia and you intend to live here, the route is a long stay Visa D obtained on the ground you will reside on, with the residence application following from it.
The dates matter more than anything else in the file. Send every entry to Serbia in the last six months, the two day ones included, because that is what decides how many days you have left to spend.
If your situation is not covered here, describe it and we will answer it directly.
Ask your question →Often not. Nationals of the EU, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and many other countries are admitted on the passport alone for up to 90 days in any 180. Beyond that, holders of a valid Schengen, UK, US, Irish or Cypriot visa or residence permit are admitted on the same terms even where their own nationality would otherwise need a visa. Send us your passport and we will confirm the position in writing.
Across a 180 day period that runs from the day you first entered, not per trip. Every day inside Serbia counts, arrival and departure days included, and so do the short business trips most people forget about. Leaving for a weekend resets nothing. The sum is made at the border, which is the worst place to discover it.
Only exceptionally. The law allows the validity or the permitted stay to be extended for humanitarian, professional or personal reasons, or where something outside your control prevents you leaving. It is not a way to stay longer by choice, and it is decided case by case. Tell us as soon as a trip looks like running over, because early is far easier than late.
No, and it is the most expensive misunderstanding we are asked to fix. A short-term visa is not a basis for a temporary residence permit. If you need a visa to enter Serbia and you intend to live here, the route is a long stay Visa D obtained on the ground your residence will rest on, with the residence application following from it.
No. Business travel is fine: meetings, negotiating and signing, a trade fair, an audit, servicing equipment. Being employed here, or working through a Serbian company of your own, is not, and it needs permission of its own. If work is the real reason for the trip, say so at the outset, because it changes which application we prepare.
The state fee for a short-term visa is currently 90 euros, paid in dinars at the National Bank middle rate, with a handful of nationalities exempt under bilateral agreements. The decision is due within 15 days of the application and may be extended to 30 where there is reason for it. An application cannot be lodged more than three months before you travel, so the window is narrower than most people expect.
Yes, and it accounts for more avoidable refusals than any other single item. It must have been issued within the last ten years, be valid for at least 90 days after the date you intend to leave Serbia, and carry two blank pages next to each other. Check it before anything else, because replacing a passport takes longer than obtaining the visa.
Yes, within 24 hours of arriving, and it applies whether or not you needed a visa. A hotel does it for you as part of checking in. In a private flat the obligation sits with the owner, and in short lets it is regularly overlooked, which is why we arrange it for clients staying privately. It is a small thing with real consequences at your next entry.
Tell us the passport you travel on, your dates, and what the trip is for. You will get a written answer on whether a visa is required at all, which one applies, and how many of your 90 days are still there to spend.